Masako Katsura was born in Tokyo, Japan, on March 7, 1913. Tokyo, Japan, is the city where she was born.
She is a well-known billiards player and is referred to as the “First Lady of Billiards.” She was the first female champion of the World Three-Cushion Billiards Championship in 1952.
Nickname(s) Katsy
Nationality Japanese
Citizenship American
Born 1913 Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died 1995 (aged 81–82)Japan
Occupation Professional carom billiards player
Spouse(s) Vernon Greenleaf(m. 1950; died 1967)
Sports Billiards
Country Japan
Turned Professional 1947
Coached by Tomio KobashiKinney Matsuyama
Retired 1961
Information about yourself:
Japan’s Tokyo is where she was born. According to the biography of Masako Katsura, she was 12 years old when her father passed away suddenly.
She has a younger brother and three sisters. During this period, she moved in with her older sister and her spouse.
She moved to the US when she was 37 years old after being married to US sergeant Vernon Greenleaf. They never had any kids together.
Billiards Professional Career:
Tomio Kobashi, the proprietor of a pool hall, taught Masako Katsura how to play the game. He is her brother-in-husband.
law’s She started working there after finishing her specialisation during her final year of high school. She started playing pool professionally at the age of 15, competing in and winning coed competitions in China and Japan.
She was first taught by Kinney Matsuyama, a former American public champion and three-time Japan National Billiards champion.
Immigration to the United States:
In 1951, Greenleaf was moved from Tokyo’s Haneda Air Base to a place in the US.
Just a few months before the World Three-Cushion Billiards Championships of 1952 were set to start on March 6, he and Katsura, who did not speak much English, boarded the USS Breckinridge and arrived in San Francisco towards the end of December 1951.
Cochran, whose billiard saloon was sponsoring the championship, had extended a restricted invitation to compete in the big showdown to Katsura after learning about her attractiveness from Matsuyama.
Cochran was an eight-time world champion, having won crowns in 18.2 balkline in 1927 and 1934, as well as three-pad billiards in 1933, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1944, and 1945.W. R. (Dick) Cochran, a marine officer in Japan who was dispatched by Cochran to investigate, came back with a positive conclusion that read, “This little lady is superior to you!”
Cochran was given the opportunity to accept her even though the Billiard Congress of America had ultimately secured the choice as competition support.
Facts:
- On March 7, 2021, International Women’s Day, Katsura was highlighted in a Google Doodle on the search results page.
- She has given herself the moniker Katsy.
- She is frequently considered as the greatest female athlete in history.